


Sore Knuckles, Dried Blood (and everything in between)

by Miss_Romance_Lover



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:39:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7505065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Romance_Lover/pseuds/Miss_Romance_Lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I just don’t understand you. Your own brother gets you shot and your way of dealing with it is to make snide comments to him every other day.”</p><p>What happens after Aaron punches Andy...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for mentions of Aaron's suicidal thoughts while falsely imprisoned last year. Also SPOILERS for next week as that's what this is based on. Anyway hope you enjoy.

Aaron cradled his sore knuckles in his other hand as Robert pulled him away from Andy and Chrissie. He was still furious, and hitting Andy had only made him feel better for the seconds that the man was laying flat out on the ground.

“What happened to letting it go?” Robert was asking now.

“Yeah, well, I tried. Until I saw him standing there without a care in the world.”

“Aaron…”

“Don’t, Robert. You can’t seriously expect me to forget it, otherwise you really shouldn’t have told me. I spent weeks in prison for what happened to you!”

“I know.” 

“I just don’t understand you. Your own brother gets you shot and your way of dealing with it is to make snide comments to him every other day.”

Robert had no response to that. What could he say? Aaron was spot on, but at least now he would know that all the jibes and jokes at Andy’s expense had nothing to do with him being with Chrissie. 

They had reached the Woolpack now, and Aaron let them in through the back door. He went straight to the kitchen to get some ice, which he immediately put in a tea towel and pressed to his sore hand. Robert joined him in sitting at the kitchen table.

“You alright?” the older man asked, head tilting towards his boyfriend’s hand.

Aaron winced, but nodded anyway. “But you nearly weren’t,” he said, his voice wobbling. 

“Hey…” Robert got up and went to crouch in front of him, resting his hands on the man’s knees in comfort. 

“I don’t even know what I’m most angry at – the fact that Andy got you shot or that he let me get locked up for it. And if I see Ross any time soon then I swear I’ll--”

“What? Kill him for me?” Robert joked, raising an eyebrow. 

“It’s not funny. What were you doing protecting him n’all?”

“I had no choice, once I’d made the decision to cover up Andy’s part in it! It’s not like Ross had a motive on his own, is it? I know a lot of people had one but not him. Look,” he continued, standing up again. “If you’re also angry because you think I chose to protect Andy over you, you’re so wrong. You know I changed my statement with the police the day I found out what he did. I’d already had it out with him and I was going to tell them everything. But I couldn’t do it to Vic. I knew the truth would hurt her, and in her eyes it’s bad enough that both her big brothers can’t stand each other. I couldn’t make it worse for her.”

“But that’s down to Andy, not you. And if she disowned him it would be his own doing,” Aaron argued, removing the ice pack to inspect his knuckles.

“Yeah, it would. She needs us both in her life, though. Especially now, after what she went through when that thug attacked her.”

Aaron’s head was starting to clear. Victoria wasn’t just his boyfriend’s sister, she was his friend too. He didn’t want to see her hurt any more than Robert did.

“And now she’s going to find out, probably through village gossip thanks to me. I didn’t even think about that. I’m sorry.”

Robert sighed. “I’ve text her to come in and see us before she starts her shift, and I said to bring Diane with her. Hopefully they’ll both hear it from me first.”

The door opened, and Aaron was thinking what a quick arrival that was when he looked up and realised it wasn’t Vic. It was Cain.

“What’s this about you punching Andy just now?” Straight to the point as always.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “Let’s just say I found out he’s not the decent bloke I thought he was.”

“Right, so you’ve told him then,” Cain said, looking at Robert.

“How did YOU know?” Robert asked.

Aaron stood from his seat, stunned. “You what?”

“Our Debbie told me.”

“You and Debbie both knew?!”

With a defeated sigh, Robert glanced back at him. “She walked in while I was threatening Ross. Like I said, I didn’t find out about his involvement until after Christmas.”

“This is why she took the kids away, isn’t it?”

Cain nodded. He sat on the arm of the sofa, facing them both. Aaron was suddenly angry all over again, this time with his uncle. “You knew what it was like for me inside. You’re the only one that knows that, and you didn’t think I deserved to know the truth?”

“What good would it have done? It’s over.”

“It’s not over until they suffer for it!” Aaron burst out.

“You mean like you suffered?” Cain probed. “That’s what gets to you the most, isn’t it. What it almost drove you to. I was angry about that too, when I found out about Andy and Ross. Believe me.”

“What are you talking about?” Robert was getting worried. “Aaron?”

“It’s nothing. Just shut up, Cain.”

“No, tell me. What happened to you?”

Cain looked between his nephew and the man he hated slightly less these days, and made the decision to unburden himself. “Aaron thought he was going down for the shooting. He couldn’t take it and he wanted out.”

“Robert didn’t need to know that,” Aaron snapped, unable to look at either of them. “You had no right.”

“Er, Robert needs to know everything right now, actually,” the man himself interjected.

“All that stuff you were coming out with, about Jackson; being trapped and finding a way out like he did. I didn’t know what to do.” Cain gestured towards Robert while looking at Aaron. “But this one can obviously get through to you where the rest of us can’t.”

Robert looked horrified as the truth dawned on him. “Oh God,” he said loudly, feeling sick.

Aaron looked at his uncle. “Cheers, thank you for making my day ten times worse. You can go now.” Cain stared him down for another minute, eventually relenting and leaving them alone again.

“You wanted to die in there?”

“I thought I was getting sent down, Robert. For twenty years at least. I just…it was hell in there. I told you that.”

“Yeah you did, but I never thought--”

“Just leave it, okay?” Aaron cut him off. “I can’t talk about this. And you can’t say anything to my mum. It’d kill her.”

“You know I wouldn’t,” Robert assured him. “Aaron, I know you said you can’t but if you ever need to talk about it, to tell someone what it was like in there…please just talk to me.”

Aaron realised that his boyfriend was close to tears. “Just come here,” he said softly.

Rubbing at his eyes, Robert closed the gap between them and slotted into his arms easily. “You have no idea how shit the world would be if you weren’t in it,” he said against the younger man’s neck.

“Wow, you have a real way with words,” he replied with a low chuckle. 

“Shut up. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” was all Aaron could say, because he did know. These days he felt exactly the same way about Robert.

“I’m sorry,” Robert said softly, pressing his lips to Aaron’s hair. “I’m so sorry you got caught up in all this.”

“I’m sorry about you having to explain it to Vic,” Aaron offered back. “I’m not sorry about Andy’s face, though.”

Robert was laughing, muffled breaths against his skin. “Neither am I,” he agreed just as his sister and Diane walked in.

“What’s up, Rob?” Victoria asked.

He reluctantly let go of Aaron to face them. “Right, sit down. I need to tell you both something and it’s…big.”

Vic and Diane obliged, sitting side by side on the sofa, while Aaron returned to his place at the kitchen table. Robert stood in front of the two women and took a deep breath. “It’s about the shooting,” he started.

And at that moment, Andy burst in, complete with dried blood on the end of his nose from where Aaron’s fist had connected with it. The look on his face seemed to say that he wasn’t about to deny what he’d done. He knew it was over.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria and Diane discover the truth about the shooting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After such lovely comments and a few of you asking for a continuation I thought I'd add another chapter. Thank you for your feedback!

Aaron stayed quiet as he watched Robert preparing to tell his sister and stepmother the truth. But as Andy walked in, their attention was divided.

“What on earth’s happened to you?” Diane demanded, turning in her seat. Victoria got to her feet to reach her brother’s side, her eyes holding the same question.

Robert shared a look with Aaron. They were both surprised when Andy didn’t immediately explain who had given him the bloody nose. Instead he dismissed their concern and gestured for Vic to return to the sofa.

“It’s not important. I saw you both come in and I know Robert was about to tell you something, but it should come from me.”

“What d’you mean?” Vic asked, frowning deeply. “Rob said it’s to do with when he was shot.”

Aaron could already tell how the impending revelation was going to affect her. She had absolutely no comprehension that Andy could be in any way connected to what Robert had gone through the previous year. She looked thoroughly confused.

“Yeah, it is,” Andy replied. “I’m sorry but that was all down to me. I arranged for him to be shot.”

“No….” Diane trailed off, looking between her stepsons in shock.

Vic’s response was more forthcoming. “Please tell me this is your twisted idea of a joke?”

Robert sat himself in between the two women and took his sister’s shaking hand in his. “I’m sorry, Vic. It’s true.”

She looked at Andy, who had now reverted back to his coward-like form by avoiding everyone’s gaze. Apparently it was all he could bring himself to do in finally owning up. Looking back towards Robert, Victoria’s eyes narrowed. 

“You’re looking quite calm about this,” she accused. “When did you find out?” 

“Not long after coming out of hospital,” he admitted. 

Diane found her voice again. “And you’ve kept it to yourself all these months?” 

“Well, up until earlier when I told Aaron; yes.”

“I can’t even…this is unbelievable!” Vic said loudly. “Who actually pulled the trigger then? Andy, you look at me and you start talking right now!”

Still the man said nothing, but they could all see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he met his little sister’s eyes. 

“Oh you know what,” Robert told her, his voice filled with venom. “Leave it, Vic. It’s obvious the only reason he bothered to come round here is because he couldn’t convince Chrissie it wasn’t true, once Aaron told her.”

“Andy?” Diane probed, sounding angrier than Aaron had ever heard her; and that included all the years he had lived with her and driven her up the wall before things had settled.

“I can’t do this,” Andy choked out, running out of the room. It seemed as if the enormity of what he’d done had only just hit him; either that or they were crocodile tears. No one went after him. At the end of the day, whatever reasons he had would never excuse him.

“Why did you cover for him when you found out?” Victoria asked Robert, rubbing at her damp eyes. 

“I wasn’t going to at first,” he explained. “But we ended up agreeing to draw a line under everything, and as far as I was concerned that was for your sake. And I guess…I guess I was also thinking about what Dad would want.”

“Dad?” she looked more confused than ever. 

“Yeah. You know he’d have wanted the family to stick together, and if not that he would have protected Andy at all costs. Just like he always did,” Robert said bitterly.

“You’re not seriously suggesting that your father would have just accepted what Andy did?” Diane asked incredulously.

“Why not? He did it before.”

“Robert--”

“Leave it, Diane. Please.”

“Right, fine,” Victoria cut in. “Just tell us who it was that actually shot you.”

At this point Robert had no issue with revealing the rest of the story. “Ross Barton.”

“ROSS?!”

“Why?” Diane exclaimed. “And why not tell the police about HIM, if not Andy?”

“He had no motive, Diane. He would have dropped Andy right in it.”

Vic shook her head. “Hang on – he was arrested over all this at Christmas. He didn’t say anything then.”

“He would have if they’d charged him.”

There was a silence as all this new information was absorbed. And then, when Victoria asked him why he’d chosen to tell the truth now, Robert looked at his boyfriend.

“I couldn’t lie to Aaron any more. And he was locked up for it and Andy never said a word, except to say he ‘didn’t think’ Aaron was guilty. He let me think the man I love could do that to me, and d’you know something? I didn’t know how angry I was about that until now.”

Aaron had been listening intently, stopping himself from intervening as this all played out. Now, listening to Robert talk about him like that, he got up and crossed the room to be by his side. No words needed; just a steady presence beside him.

They all sat together for a long while, nursing cups of tea and coffee and going over everything as Robert knew it. Diane and Vic offered Aaron apologies for doubting him, though they had already done this upon his release from prison and he had long forgiven them. Victoria felt especially awful remembering how certain she had been of his guilt at the time, and now instinctively knowing that being locked up would have severely upset his mental state.

None of them knew how far the truth about Andy was likely to spread; but they weren’t planning to do damage control around the village at this point. Whatever happened next would just have to happen.

Once the women had both gone home, Aaron and Robert lay back on the sofa together, their bodies slumped in that way only extreme tiredness could cause. After all the drama of the day, Aaron couldn’t bring himself to feel as furious as he had a few hours before. 

“How’s your hand?” Robert asked, stretching and then resting one arm around Aaron’s shoulder. 

The younger man looked down at the offending knuckles. They had been completely forgotten during the awkward Sugden family meeting.

“It’s alright. I’ll live,” he sent him a small smile. “So…the man you love,” he prompted, recalling Robert’s earlier words.

“Eh? Oh, right. You know I love you,” he replied, bemused that Aaron seemed so taken with the remark.

“Yeah I do, it’s just…hearing you say it like that. It just sounded even better, somehow. I don’t know why.”

“Okay. Aaron Dingle: the man I love,” he stated with a dramatic flourish. Aaron rolled his eyes but felt warmth spread through his chest at hearing it again. It helped that Robert’s voice was gentle and genuine with the words.

“Mmm,” he replied, feeling strangely content after the day they’d had. “Just so you know, you’re the man I love too.”

“Give us a kiss then,” Robert twinkled. Aaron chuckled and leaned closer, pressing his lips to the corner of the other man’s mouth to tease him.

Robert sighed, feigning disappointment. “Oh I’m really feeling the love here. You can do better than that, Aaron!” In response, the younger man reconnected their mouths and kissed him until things became heated and they had to take a break for need of air.

“Hmm well, you’re obviously feeling better now.”

Aaron smiled softly. “I can’t make this all about me, can I? I saw what it’s done to Diane and Vic; and however much you pretend you’re fine, I saw what it’s done to you.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve had months to get my head around it,” Robert insisted, though his blasé attitude wasn’t fooling his boyfriend.

“Rob…what you said earlier about being able to talk to you about stuff. It works both ways, okay?”

Robert didn’t say anything, just smiled briefly at him and bowed his head.

“You never mention your dad,” Aaron says quietly, already worrying that he’d said too much. He couldn’t help prying though, after what Robert had said today. He just wanted to know him; everything about him.

“I…I can’t. I don’t talk about him, hardly ever. If I do then I have to remember the last time I saw him and the last thing he said to me which was to leave and never come back.”

That last sentence was his undoing, and before he knew it he was crying into Aaron’s shirt as the other man wrapped his arms around him. All these months Robert had been Aaron’s salvation; now it was his turn to be the rock.


End file.
